Thursday, February 3, 2011

Snow Day=Sew Day (part one)

One of the reasons I love snowy days so much is that they seem like such a good excuse to stay home and put all those "every day" chores on the backburner. I can hunker-down with the best of them, and these last couple of days of hunkering-down produced some very fine results (even if I do say so myself).

I have been wanting to make something out of the Wee Wonderfuls book by Hillary Lang ever since it came out, and the snow storm presented me with an irresistable opportunity to do so.

I had such a hard time deciding what to make, because all of the projects in the book look like so much fun, but in the end I made the "I Heart You" doll found on page 67.























She looked like an easy place to start, and she was! I was able to start and finish this little lady all in one day, and I'm so glad I did because I love her much, much more than I thought I would.

Actually, I was in love with the whole process of making her, from start to finish.

Actually, I can't wait to make many, many more of the projects from the book.

(What can I say, when I fall for something, I fall hard!)

Choosing fabrics was fun but took me a long time: I was working from my stash (which is not insignificant) and not quite sure how I wanted her to look in the end.























I love Hillary's version of the "I Heart You" doll in the book, she looks so Scandinavian-Folktale-Chic, don't you think? I wanted something that would feel kind of old-fashionedy the way Hillary's doll looks, but I didn't have any of that cool, vintage-looking apron fabric from the photograph in my stash, which in the end was a good thing, because I had to come up with my own vision for the doll.























I used some older Fig Tree fabrics for the body and head of the doll (I think they are both from the "Patisserie" collection), and for the apron I used an older Heather Ross from my stash. The bib of the apron is one of those fabrics that I have no recollection of purchasing or even ever seeing before, but I suspect it may have come from Cyndi's shop. Looks like something I would buy from her, she has such cool stuff.

I hand embroidered the little face, and there was also a teeny bit of applique: nothing a beginner couldn't handle. It was not my first time ever to applique by hand, but it was my first ever hand-embroidery project. I love how much personality there is in those few lines that make up her features, but I was dissapointed there wasn't MORE hand-embroidery to do: it was over so fast! (Guess that means I need to try my hand at Marie Antoinette over there. Maybe with a linen for a background: ooooh, yeah!) I was amazed at how user-friendly embroidery is, because I am not someone who can normally teach myself that kind of thing.
























It was also my first-time ever stuffing a doll. I took my time and enjoyed that whole process much more than I thought I would, too.

I'm not the kind of gal who normally likes fussy little finishing details: I like to bing, bang, boom get out of there and move on to my next project, but manashevitz, the details were the best part of this project and they hit the spot!

(What can I say, the snow brings it out in me!)

I have some more Snow Day/Sew Day projects to share with you, but I will leave them until next time.

In the meanwhile, I still have some shoveling to do!

XO,

Rhea

1 comment:

Jenny said...

so darling rhea...i love seeing a different version than the book...tick tock is there time to make one for my daughter for valentines day??????